Record Keepers Sweat It Out, But Mercury Not Hot Enough

The fact that the temperature was two degrees short of the record in Norfolk was no cold comfort to folks on the Peninsula.

The Mercury hit 103 degrees in Menchville at 3 p.m. Saturday and was still above the century mark two hours later, at 101 degrees, according to National Weather Service weather watcher Bob Mazaitis.

The high temperature was 98 degrees at both Newport News/Williamsburg International Airport and across the water, at the National Weather Service bureau at Norfolk International Airport. That was two degrees short of the record of 100 for the day, set in 1980, according to meteorologist Ron Yankes. Only official readings taken in Norfolk count for purposes of weather records.

Weather bureau officials said radio reports that the high hit 100 at the Newport News airport were based on an erroneous temperature reading that was later corrected.

More of the same blistering 90 degree temperatures and sunny skies are forecast into the middle of the week, with a chance that a cool front will arrive in time to drop temperatures into the 80s for the Fourth of July festivities Thursday, Yankes said.

Yankes said the heat index, that combines temperature and humidity to come up with the ``apparent temperature,'' hit a high of 113 in Norfolk, when the temperature was 98 and the relative humidity was 55 percent. That put conditions in the ``danger zone,'' Yankes said, when anyone involved in strenuous physical activity outdoors risks sun stroke or heat exhaustion.